Ramora UK joins European training and safety initiative

Ramora UK has joined EUExcert UK - to improve the competence and skills of workers in the European explosive business

Ramora UK, the world-renowned provider of Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) training and support services, has joined leading organisations across Europe in signing up to a new initiative to raise safety and training standards in the explosives industry.

The initiative, EUExcert, brings together companies across Europe, united in the aim of creating occupational standards for working with explosives which will be recognised across national borders. Qualifications and certificates will help to raise the status of the industry, attracting new individuals to the sector and encouraging them to continually improve their skills and abilities.

The principal aim is to reduce the number of accidents in the explosives business, but a second important factor is that a high proportion of the most experienced and knowledgeable people in the industry across Europe are nearing retirement.

The programme will improve the quality of the educational material and provide increased access to training through the workplace and through e-learning. The resulting improvement in competence and skills will enhance the status of explosives workers, improve worker and public safety and improve European competitiveness.

Ramora UK has added its weight to the initiative by joining EUExcert UK. As a leading player in the UK's explosives sector with a mission to become the undisputed world leader in explosive ordnance disposal and training, Ramora UK strongly supports the move to strengthen safety and standards across the sector.

"Our own strength as a business has grown through a commitment to attracting, recruiting and developing the best and most experienced staff," said David Welch MIExpE, MD of Ramora UK. "We are therefore delighted to be involved with this industry initiative to create transnational standards to improve the training and safety of workers across Europe."

Ken Cross, Chairman of EUExcert UK, commented: "As Chairman of EUExcert UK I would like to welcome Ramora UK into the fold and I commend the company's commitment to the improvement of safety across the explosives sector and the vision demonstrated in David Welch's comments on the enhancement of explosives workers' mobility in Europe. The EUExcert programme is progressing well and every company that joins its national reference group aids the drive for European acceptance of the desire for both of those aims."